I'll run it past the Guidelines committee and let you know what the decision is.

Do you know of any sets that have both an Archive Box and Collector Tins? Are Archive Boxes are a Rittenhouse specific thing?



IMO - not really. I don't follow your logic. What difference does it make how the box was distributed?

They are ruled out as Factory Sets because they are boxes of sealed packs, not sets at all. They are the same art as a sealed box, just with a sticker marking them as the jackpot of all boxes.

Also, not all archives boxes contain all inserts. The big deal about a Women of Marvel archives box was that it contained 10 sketch cards instead of 1, and three of the artists were exclusive to the archive boxes. But when you open it, it is still sealed packs, you have to bust the packs to get the cards, and the pack coalition is the same as the rest of the boxes.

Also, while most are case incentive, there are random Archive boxes in normal distribution, most of the time because they make say 50 Archive boxes but don't get 50 orders for 12 cases. So the rest go in the normal cases, making them very rare but possible to find the same as a normal box. A variant of the box seems very reasonable for this.

I think there may be more than one type of "archive box", which will only add to the confusion of this question. In sports cards, what ntkeith was just refering to was(is?) considered a "hot box", due to the over abundance of chase cards, and "hot packs" which contained only chase and no base cards. From what abydosorphan explained to me, the specific box(es?) being refered to in her post don't have packs, and contain nothing but all the chase cards in a particular set.
That's why when she asked me, I referred her here, considering that it is a "Promo" "Factory Set" of "Gimmick/Chase cards" where "Scarcity/Printing will trump this..." may apply. In my opinion, it fell under too many options to make a clean call without other input.

The term "Archive Box" is specific to the company "Rittenhouse Archives". My explanation of comparing it to a "Hot Box" like people call really loaded boxes in sports cards is just making the comparison to something some of us know too.

Everything I have known about "Archive Boxes" is that while the inserts may be different, I understand them to be the same as the boxes of packs. If earlier versions, say like the Stargate ones are different, then they should be treated differently. My opinion is for those that contain packs, so if they didn't contain packs, then a different answer should be found for those.

Sent an email to Rittenhouse Archives to see if they can provide an answer to what exactly is in an Archive Box. (Edit - Rittenhouse Archives has replied that ALL Archive Boxes have packs in them.)

the Guidelines Committee has ruled that Archive Boxes should be listed as a variant of a Sealed Box. Please add the appropriate information in both the Caption field ("Archive Box") and the Item Bio field (describe the contents) to identify it as an Archive Box.

Thank you.

As for whether or not the cards within an Archive box come in packs or are packaged otherwise, I have no idea - I've honestly never opened one.

As for what they contain, as you can see in the link below - from a series other than Stargate - an Archive box from Rittenhouse contains ALL of the pack-inserted bonus cards for their respective series.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/24/archivebox.jpg

Guidelines updated to reflect inclusion of "Reprint" within parenthesis to differentiate an original Base Set and a reprint Base Set.

Guidelines updated to add the following update to the generic cover title for trading cards:

"The place for issue #7 will ALWAYS be the advertising sell sheet or advertising pack inserts (may be a single card size item or a fold out sheet)."

Irony: One year to the DAY I posted the Trading Card Guidelines.

geez now i know why i dont collect cards you end up going blind deaf and dumb doing this but i aploud all of you but way too much work

Updated to include "Policy on Quoting other Resources"

Updated "Gimmick/Chase Cards" section. Added "Unredeemed Mail in Redemption Cards" Section.

Updated Characters section re: real/fictional organizations and character titles.

I am a very big fan of various comics, so this information is very valuable to me. Thank you.